Jason Blossom's death was quickly becoming a normality for Riverdale, which for many was terrifying but Jason would not be the only casualty that the town would suffer in the coming weeks. Unaware of this our heroes are already settling into problems of their own, unaware of what dark times awaited.
Jughead Jones was on a mission to save his workplace and home away from home, the Twilight Drive-In. The Drive-In was a piece of town history and a collection of memories and yet due to poor investment it was now closing down, just when the town needed it the most.
Something, or rather someone, else that the town needed was John Andrews. The town didn't know it but John's challenge of Malachai's leadership bid for the Ghoulies was all that was standing in the way of the Ghoulies becoming drug mule's intent on ruining Riverdale. After his time in the hospital John knows what's at stake and knows that he must raise his following within the gang if he ever wants to stop Malachai's plans. He sits and wonders exactly how he might accomplish this.
Meanwhile the investigation of Jason Blossom's murder continues to disrupt daily lives with Sheriff Keller going door to door with the hope of finding any and all information. With pressure being pilled on by the Blossoms, Riverdale is becoming more like Salem during the witch trials with everyone turning on each other.
Yet while everyone else is focused on the big mystery, Betty Cooper sits in her room alone. She's writing a diary entry on an incredibly disturbing piece of information that she acquired from Dilton Doiley. That Archie, her best friend and former crush, might be caught up in a forbidden romance.
*Betty's Diary*
Dear Diary,
Sheriff Keller doesn't know what I know. That Riverdale High's music teacher, Geraldine Grundy, was at Sweetwater River the morning that Jason Blossom went missing and that, since Archie was there, they could have been there together.
I trust Archie more than I trust anyone but I also know him better than I know anyone. He's easily manipulated and if Grundy is using him to make sure that something doesn't get out, then he'd happily oblige if he thought it would protect her. God only knows what kind of spell she might have over him but I will get to the bottom of it.
I won't let Archie down!
*Betty's POV*
"The Drive-In closing is just one more nail in the coffin that is Riverdale...No forget Riverdale, in the coffin of the American Dream!"
Betty was shaken from her thoughts by Jughead's angry yelling. She, Jughead, Veronica and Kevin were sat together in a booth in Pop's and Jughead had been ranting for the last half hour about the towns plans to close the Drive-In. Betty hadn't been listening, she agreed with Jughead but she had other things on her mind, namely Archie and his relationship with Miss Grundy.
"As the Godfather of indie cinema, Quentin Tarrantio, once said—"
Kevin interrupted Jug "Please, God, no more Quentin Tarrantino references"
Jughead looked up at Kevin "What? I'm pissed and not just about losing my job. The Twilight Drive-In should mean something to us!"
Veronica chuckled and leant forwards "In this age of Netflix and VOD, do people really want to watch a movie in a car? I mean who even goes there"
"People who want to buy crack" Kevin muttered.
"How about cinephiles and car enthusiasts, right Bets?" Jughead asked Betty.
Betty snapped her mind back to Earth and shook her head in agreement "Uh totally"
"It's closing because the town owns it but didn't invest in it. So, when an anonymous buyer made Mayor McCoy an offer she couldn't refuse—" Jughead was cut off again by Veronica.
"Anonymous buyer?" Veronica shook her head in disbelief "What do they have to hide? No one cares"
Jughead frowned "I do. Anyway, you guys should all come to closing night, I'm thinking American Graffiti...or is that too obvious?"
"Well I vote for anything starring Audrey Hepburn or Cate Blanchett" Veronica bubbled.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" Kevin voted "Betty, your choices?"
Veronica leaned in towards Betty "Everything okay B?"
Inwardly Betty laughed. If only she could tell her best friend what was going on, then at least she wouldn't be the only one worrying but Archie was her friend and she didn't want to betray him by letting everyone in on his secret, she hadn't even told Jughead.
"Yeah just thinking is all" She lied "How about Rebel without a cause"
Betty and Jughead both chuckled at the same time, sometimes she was amazed she didn't end up crushing on Jug instead of Arch. They had way more in common.
"Here you go kids" said a kind voice next to them.
It was Hermione Lodge, Veronica's mom, bringing over their food. Betty still couldn't get over the fact that Hermione had gone from wife of one of the most successful businessmen in America to a waitress in over a month. It just didn't seem possible that someone could fall that far from grace. Then again with the way that this world was going, she really shouldn't have been surprised.
She watched as Hermione walked over to Cheryl's table to collect the bill. She was sat with her usual cronies which Betty had expected but it had managed to surprise everyone else. They'd assumed that because Cheryl and John were together now, that Cheryl would have attempted to make some kind of amends. Betty knew Cheryl far too well, she was keeping her new boyfriend a secret and that meant that she couldn't be seen near any of them, not that she would have anyway. She'd bought into John, not the rest of them.
Just as Hermione was about to collect the money from the table, Cheryl grabbed it and looked up at the much taller woman.
"Be sure to put all the cash in the register, you are a Lodge after all" Cheryl announced loudly.
Veronica started to get up and Betty was about to go over as well but Hermione waved them away before turning back to Cheryl.
"Cheryl, I went to school with your mother. She didn't know the difference between having money and having class either" Hermione gave Cheryl one last look then walked off.
Betty smiled to herself, she should have known that Hermione was as sharp as her daughter. Cheryl would have a hard time pushing either of them around.
"That's an odd combo of people" Kevin muttered suddenly, causing them all to turn around and look at the front door to Pop's.
Kevin was right, stood there was the very strange combo of Fred Andrews, Archie Andrews and Geraldine Grundy. Except for Betty it wasn't that strange.
"I'll be right back" Betty said, getting up.
"Betty, don't" Jughead hissed as he tried to grab her coat but just missed.
Betty stood up and began to walk over to the booth where Archie, his Dad and Miss Grundy had settled down. She had to know what was going on here and the only ways she was going to find that out was if she asked Archie straight up.
"Hey Betty" Archie's Dad said as she approached.
"Hey Mr Andrews, Miss Grundy" She said with a smile "Archie can I talk to you?"
"Uh sure, I'll call you later?" Archie replied nervously.
"No actually now, just school stuff. Outside?" she asks forcefully, fully aware of the glance Archie had just shared with Grundy.
They walked out the front of the store and the door hadn't even closed behind them before the words blurted out of Betty's mouth.
"Archie as your best friend, is there anything that you wanna tell me?"
Archie seemed to panic for only a second before narrowing his eyes in confusion.
"I don't think so?"
Betty sighed "Miss Grundy was at Sweetwater River on July 4th, were you with her?"
Archie didn't reply straight away, instead he stared in to her eyes. Probably trying to figure out how she knew.
"Did Jughead tell you?" He asked eventually.
She was taken back by that, what did Jughead have to do with this. As far as she knew, they'd found out at the very same time.
"Jughead knew about this?"
They both cast a look back to the booth where she imagined, a very embarrassed Jughead was sitting.
*Veronica's POV*
Veronica watched as Betty and Archie turned to look at the window to their booth.
"Okay they're both looking at us, what's going on? Is it about me?" she rambled, Veronica hated not knowing things.
She looked at Jughead, who had hunkered down out of sight.
"I have a strong inkling" he said cautiously "Also no and I'd let it go"
Veronica sighed "Yes but you're you and I'm me. You do you girl, I'll be back"
With that she got up and walked outside smiling as she heard Kevin say from behind her "What was it like before she got here? I honestly cannot remember"
She walked out the front door and was immediately taken aback by the very first thing she heard Betty say.
"Archie are you and Miss Grundy together? Like romantically?"
"Oh my god" she breathed as she walked over to them and Archie turned to see her "You and your music teacher are having an affair?"
Archie shook his head "We are together, look I know that sounds bad but honestly it isn't"
"It sounds scandalous" Veronica said, in disbelief. She'd had no idea that town life could be this exciting.
Betty raised her eyebrows "It sounds like jailtime to me!"
Archie turned on her "Betty don't go there"
"Already there" she retorted back at him.
He turned to face Veronica again "Ronnie, a little help here?"
Veronica stammered, she hated being put on the spot like this "Technically Betty's right. I mean what is she to you anyway? Your Girlfriend? Your Booty Tutor?"
Archie stared at the ground "I really don't know what to call her okay but all I know is that she was there for me when no one else was"
Veronica looked at Betty as her face fell. That wasn't fair although Veronica was pretty certain that Archie hadn't even noticed what he'd said. He was too caught up in his Grundy fantasy world.
"Okay we get it, but you've lied Archie. There's no getting around that, to us and a sheriff"
Archie turned to Betty "Betty say something, please!"
Veronica watched Betty's crestfallen face, she just kept shaking her head until a loud horn made them all turn around.
Betty's mom had pulled up next to them in the car and she looked furious.
"Get in the car, Betty. Now!" Alice Cooper yelled.
Veronica wanted to tell her to shut up but that wouldn't have helped Betty at all.
With a shrug to Archie, Betty walked over to her mom's car and got in just as her mother sped off.
"Oh Archiekins" Veronica said softly as she looked at Archie "You're in it deep this time"
*Cheryl's POV*
Cheryl was sat in her car at Pop's, she couldn't stand to be in there with the witches of Pembrooke any longer. They may have been John's friends but she still found them a threat.
"Look all I can tell you is that he's older than me, he goes to our school and he's been under my nose this whole time and if you can't work it out from that then you bitches really are useless" She said playfully to her two teen capos.
She looked away from them for a moment only for something to catch her eye. A Southside Serpent in an iconic leather jacket, having an argument with a Pop's waitress. One very interesting Pop's waitress as well. Hermione Lodge.
"Turn down the music" She barked "I spy with my little eye Hermione Lodge, full of secrets. Riddle me this, hair models of the damned. Why is Veronica's mother having a tete-a-tete with a Southside serpent, behind a dumpster at Pop's?"
She smiled before raising her phone to take a picture, tomorrow she was going to do a little hell raising and it would teach Hermione Lodge a lesson she'd never forget...
*Jughead's POV*
"How hard would it have been to give me a little head up?" Archie demanded as he followed Jughead through the corridors on his mission to save the Drive-In. He was handing out flyers but mostly at the moment he was just using them as an excuse not to look at the furious face of Archie Andrews.
Jughead sighed "Look I am, by nature, a conscientious objector. Not saying anything to either you or Betty was the most moral apathetic choice I could make"
Archie grabbed Jughead by the arm "Jug, she's not gonna write about me and Grundy in the paper is she? Like she did with Chuck?"
Jughead looked at Archie incredulously "Dude seriously? Okay look just think about what you're asking. If there was even an iota of a chance that anything could hurt you in any way, Betty wouldn't do it...probably"
"Oh my god, what!"
Jughead chuckled "I'm kidding but maybe she has a point. What do you see happening with Grundy, long term? What do you want?"
"I just want to be with her Jug. I don't know how but I wanna hang on for as long as possible"
Jughead sighed as he put up another 'Save the Drive-In' poster "Yeah I get you. I'm trying to hold onto something much older than me too"
Archie laughed and shook his head "Just, promise me you'll let me know if Betty's gonna do anything crazy. So, I can stop it and talk it over with her, please"
Jughead nodded even thought he knew deep down that if Betty was going to do something crazy, there would be nothing that either of them could do to stop it.
*Geraldine's POV*
Geraldine felt like a rabbit in headlights. When Betty had come up to the table last night, demanding to speak to Archie she automatically had a bad feeling. The girl had to know what was going on and after she'd approached Geraldine this morning about doing an interview, she was now certain of this.
They were sat in the music room on stools, so that their eyes were at the same height. Geraldine had never felt so terrified of a teenage girl in all her life.
"Thank you for taking the time, Ms Grundy" Betty said to her with a sickly smile "Like I said the Blue and Gold is doing a series of articles spotlighting teachers, and you're our first"
Geraldine smiled nervously back at her. Everything she'd worked to hide; this girl could uncover it all.
"Let's begin. Uh you joined the faculty last year. Where did you move to Riverdale from?"
Geraldine took a breath and answered as calmly as she could, there was no reason to believe that this interview was anything but platonic.
"Here and there. I was just mostly on the road"
Betty frowned at her "But you've taught at other schools?"
"Oh yeah of course"
Betty seemed to wait expectantly but Geraldine wasn't going to give her more information than she asked for.
"Could I get their names?" Betty prompted.
Geraldine laughed in an effort to fight back the 'No' that she wanted to say.
"Seaside High and Centreville High"
"Nice and what made you leave?"
This, she didn't have to lie about "They were temporary placements, you know, filling in for maternity or sabbatical. This is my first permanent position"
Betty didn't even react, choosing instead to steer the conversation some place else. Probably somewhere where she thought she'd be able to catch Geraldine out. She had another thing coming, there was no way this lovesick little girl was going to ruin the best thing that had ever happened for her.
"Getting back to music, you've been working with Archie Andrews on an independent study, how's that going? Have you ever done this sort of thing before?"
There it is, she thought.
"Yes, with two other students last year. Tomoko Yoshido and Jason Blossom"
Betty looked shocked "Jason? Before..."
Geraldine nodded "Before he died, such a tragedy. He was an inspiration"
Betty's face suddenly changed as she leaned in with a fake smile.
"And pretty cute, right?"
Two could play at this game.
Geraldine leaned in so she was on Betty's level and spoke calmly.
"I don't think of my students that way, now if you'll excuse me, I have to prepare for my next class"
With that Geraldine got up, making a mental note to tell Archie to reign in his maniacal journalist friends.
*Veronica's POV*
Kevin reached into the student lounge vending machine and retrieved his snack, although creepily his eyes never left Veronica but because it was Kevin, she couldn't help but giggle. There was something so carefree about Kevin, you could always be yourself around him.
"It's a quintessential right of passage, making out with your boy or girlfriend at the movies" Kevin sighed.
He was talking about how he didn't have a date to the Drive-In, Veronica didn't either although after Chuck she wasn't exactly unhappy about that.
"Why don't we go together?" Veronica suggested "I can't promise you any action but maybe I'll bring you good luck?"
Kevin smiled "Great, another night another hag"
"Speaking of hags" said the unmistakable and unwanted voice of Cheryl Blossom, from right next to them "Veronica, it's so devasting to me that your mother has to sink to such unspeakable lows just to keep those knock-off Hermes bags on your arm"
Veronica turned to Cheryl and chuckled "My mom's a waitress Cheryl, not Fantine. You know I thought getting with John would mellow you but clearly I was wrong, what do you want?"
Cheryl's eyes were full of fury "Only to remind you of your place in this school"
Veronica smiled coldly at her "Threatened much? Don't worry, you may be a stock character from a '90s teen movie but I'm not. Now what does any of this have to do with my mom being a waitress?"
Cheryl's face turned coldly smug "I saw her talking to a Southside Serpent last night, in that alley behind Pop's. They were having an extremely heated, intimate discussion, see for yourself"
With that Cheryl opened her phone and showed her a picture of her mother fighting with a tall man in a leather jacket.
Veronica was taken aback, so much so that she barely spoke for the rest of the day. On the car ride home, she couldn't help but keep replaying what Cheryl had said over and over in her head. Was her mother going to end up like her father and worse still, was she doing it all for her?
When she got home, she walked tentatively into the front room where her mother was lounging on the recliner.
She noticed Veronica walking in and smiled "Who knew working would be so tiring?"
Veronica didn't respond. How was she supposed to ask her mother this question?
"Mom?" She asked cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"Cheryl showed me a picture...You were standing in an alley behind Pop's with a Southside Serpent? What were you doing?"
Her mom's face went from surprised to amused fairly quickly "First off you have nothing to worry about, you have to remember Veronica, I grew up here. The Serpents may be from the wrong side of the tracks but I went to school with some of them. I was just being polite"
"Cheryl said it looked like you two were arguing"
Her mother laughed "Arguing? Hardly, he made a lewd comment and I put him in his place"
Veronica shook her head, some part of her just wasn't buying this "Mom if you're in some kind of trouble..."
"I'm not, Mija when have I ever lied to you?"
Veronica stared into her mom's eyes and realised that she never had and whatever she was feeling was probably just a result of her father's arrest, but she could shake the feeling that something about this whole scenario was wrong...
*Jughead's POV*
After an hour of waiting they'd finally been allowed into Mayor McCoy's office at the town hall. He was here to ask the Mayor not to destroy the Drive-In and he'd brought backup. He'd asked John to come along in his Ghoulies Jacket, he was clutching at straws but maybe she'd recognise the symbolism and be scared? Jughead took what he could get in this lonely fight and John had been his partner in crime after he'd fallen out with Archie so it just felt right to call on his help.
Together they were led by a deputy up to the office where Mayor McCoy was stood in front of a scale model of the entire town.
"Jughead, John! It's good to see you both, I don't believe I ever got the chance to thank either of you for the parts you played in saving my daughter from that shooter"
Next to him he saw John shuffle his feet nervously, oh if only she knew the real story.
"It was our pleasure" Jughead replied for them both.
"So, what brings you to my office today boys?" she asked, sitting in her chair.
"Well, I'm here to ask you to save the Twilight Drive-In" Jughead said with as much confidence as he could muster.
"I'm sorry, but the Twilight Drive-In? It's a blight that's become a cesspool and a hangout for criminals and transients" She gave a judging look to John's jacket "Like the ones your sporting on your clothes, young man"
John smiled wryly "Fashions, fashion ma'am"
The mayor shook her head "Anyway, it doesn't matter. The deals done, Andrews Construction is scheduled to demolish the whole thing on Monday"
Jughead took a deep breath "Mayor McCoy, when I was a kid, my family would go to the drive in all the time. We couldn't afford tickets for everyone so my sister Jellybean and I would hide in the trunk until we parked, then we'd sneak out. It's like my home" he said desperately.
"That's a very sweet sentiment, Mr Jones but the future of Riverdale is at stake"
Jughead looked at her, pleading with her eyes but she looked away and stood up "now if that's all I have a lot to attend to"
Jughead figured it better to not push her, they shook her hand and walked out of the office and back into the waiting room.
"I can't believe that she won't help" John muttered "I mean an anonymous buyer? That's ridiculous"
Jughead sighed "She is right about the gangs though, Serpents are crawling all over the place. Probably won't be long until your boys are there too"
John smiled "Not if I can help it, I mean just think Jug. If I win this bid then I can use this gang to drive people like the Serpents out of places like the Drive-In, I can make a difference"
"Any chance you can hurry up with that then?" Jughead laughed.
"Not unless you know how to gain the trust of seventy people"
Jughead frowned, an idea formed in his head "What if you could kill two birds with one stone? Investigate the Serpents at the Drive-In and find out why they've taken an interest in it, if I can then track down this anonymous buyer then you can bet their connected. If you deliver the Serpents full plans to the Ghoulies then they'll have to respect you, it's more than Malachai's done"
"You know what Jug that might just work"
"Then it's decided" Jug said confidently "You go to the drive in and find out as much as you can, take back up in case you're spotted"
John frowned "Where will you start?"
Jughead smiled "I'm gonna interrogate your father"